What to do when rain floods your home, compound or car park

Flood water looks harmless, but it hides real dangers. If water has reached sockets, wiring, a generator or the electrical board, keep out of it. Switch off the power to the flooded area only if you can reach the board without standing in water; otherwise leave it and tell the crew when they arrive.

Stay away from manhole covers. Rain can lift a cover or someone may have opened one, and an open manhole under muddy water is invisible. Keep children and pets out of standing water, and treat it as dirty: in many places flood water mixes with sewage from overflowing manholes.

Don't drive through deep water, on the road or down a basement ramp. You can't tell how deep it is or what is under it, and a car can stall or float in less water than people expect.

If you can do it safely, move cars out of underground car parks and low yards before the water rises further. Lift furniture, rugs, documents and anything electrical off the floor, and move stock or equipment in ground-floor stores to shelves.

Don't use a lift that serves a flooded basement or car park. Close internal doors to slow the water spreading, and keep towels or boards at doorways to hold back shallow water. Take photos and videos of the water and any damage as you go, for insurance and for the crew.

A thin layer on a yard or a driveway can often be pushed towards a working drain with a squeegee once the rain eases. If a gully is covered with leaves or sand and it is safe to reach, clearing the grating can be enough to get it flowing again.

Deep water, water that keeps coming back, and water in basements, lift pits and underground car parks need a suction truck. Small household pumps clog quickly with the sand and silt in rainwater, and they only move the water somewhere else. Don't lift a sewer manhole to drain rainwater into it either: it can overload the sewer and push sewage back up into homes nearby.

Our rain emergency service uses the Super Combi to suck standing water into the truck's own tank, so it leaves with us instead of flooding the next plot. We work 24/7, through the rain itself, including Fridays and nights.

In Qatar the usual cause is sand. Wind blows it into gullies and drain lines all year, and the first heavy rain washes it down until the pipes choke. When that happens the water has nowhere to go, even after the rain stops.

Sucking out the standing water fixes today's flood. Clearing the line fixes the cause. Drain jetting blasts the sand and silt out of the pipes with high-pressure water, and the same truck sucks it out at the manhole, so it doesn't settle further down the line.

When the water goes, it leaves sand, silt and mud on roads, ramps and floors. On compound streets, car parks and private roads our road sweeper clears it, as part of street and compound cleaning. Indoors, shovel out the mud, wash floors down and open doors and windows to dry the building.

If sewage was in the water, clean and disinfect the surfaces it touched, and throw away soaked items you can't wash. Before switching power back on to areas that were flooded, have a qualified electrician check the wiring and sockets.